Apple: Record four million orders of iPhones on 1st day

New York: Apple had more than 4 million advance orders of its new iPhones in the first 24 hours, exceeding its initial supply, the company said on Tuesday. The company said the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be delivered to customers starting Friday and throughout September, but many won't be delivered until October.

Phones will still be available Friday on a walk-in basis at Apple retail stores and from various wireless carriers and authorised Apple resellers.

Apple's website had intermittent outages last Friday because of heavy traffic as orders began online. The company said the 4 million orders set a new 24-hour record.

It did not immediately say what the old record was. Last year, Apple sold 9 million phones in the first three days they were on sale.

The new phones were announced last week and have larger screens, faster performance and a wireless chip for making credit card payments at retail stores by holding the phone near the payment terminal. The phones start at USD199 with a two-year service contact.

The phones will initially be available in US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK Availability will expand to more than 20 additional countries a week later.

A free update to Apple's iOS software for phones will be available to existing users on Wednesday. The new phones will come with that update, iOS 8.